Philadelphia’s poverty rate dropped to 19.7 percent in 2024, now ranking its second to Houston among the poorest big cities in the nation.
Philadelphia is no longer the poorest big city in the United States, as the city’s poverty rate has dropped below 20 percent for the first time since at least 1979.
However, that is not all cause for celebration, write Nate File and John Duchneskie for The Philadelphia Inquirer…